1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to waste destruction and emissions control systems. More particularly, it relates to a method and apparatus for the direct flame and/or secondary flame processing for the destruction of noxious pollutants and contaminants from a wide range of sources, including, but not limited to, waste streams from industrial processes, chemical processing, engine exhausts, and environmental cleanup operations.
2. General Background and State of the Art
Vapor and liquid streams containing hydrocarbons, contaminants, chlorinated compounds, toxics, and other volatile and nonvolatile materials represent a serious challenge to human and animal health, and to the environment in general. Over the last several years, concerted efforts have been made to dispose of such materials in a safe manner, in many cases by dumping them in fill zones. In other situations, certain hazardous materials are disposed of by burning them at trash dumps, in commercial furnaces, and the like. Depending on the burning parameters, such destruction frequently is time-consuming, incomplete, and produces noxious levels of undesired pollutants.
There exists a need for a means of destroying vapors and/or liquids containing hydrocarbons, contaminants, chlorinated compounds, toxics, and other volatile and nonvolatile materials that are removed or are the result of various environmental cleanup, engine exhaust, industrial processes, and any other remediation actions.
More specifically, there exists a need for a device and method that enables the destruction of hydrocarbon emissions and other contaminants that have elevated concentrations of the aforementioned contaminants, which may be difficult to destroy or are resistant to oxidation by ‘direct flame’ processing due to their inability to sustain combustion. For example, the needed device and method could be utilized for the processing and destruction of emissions drawn from environmental cleanup operations (such as Dual-Phase Extraction and Soil-Vapor Extraction) whereby high concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) and/or low concentrations of oxygen (O2) are present.
These conditions, as well as others, inhibit ‘direct flame’ oxidation by snuffing out the flame propagation process by the nonflammable constituents present in the vapors to be destroyed. Erratic operation and undesirable results of the existing art (for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,572,866 [Loving], 5,381,659 [Loving, et al.], and 4,785,748 [Sujata, et al.]) in the field would likely cause these processes to be ineffective at achieving effective emissions control when encountering varying flows, concentrations, and any nonflammable constituents of the process stream.
There exists a need for a device and method for the destruction of noxious vapors that achieves destruction of such vapors through direct flame destruction and/or downstream secondary flame destruction, without the secondary flame destruction process impeding the performance of the upstream primary turbulent flame process's capability of destroying the compounds.
There also exists a need for a device and method for the destruction of noxious vapors whereby such vapors may be manually or automatically directed for direct flame or secondary flame destruction of the vapors, so that the method can be optimized to provide a means to destroy the vapors either by a combination of direct flame and/or downstream catalytic operation, and/or secondary flame processing, even for the application where the vapors could or are likely to extinguish the flame.
There further exists a need for the integration of turbulent combustion technologies (as found in the '748, '659, and '866 patents previously cited) with a method that directs the flame process into maximizing contact with the vapors for either preheating, partial oxidation, or compete oxidation as required by the individual process requirements and goals, or as directed by air pollution regulations and agencies. The integration of splitting the vapor flows in a co-current manner through (1) the direct flame zone, and (2) a secondary flame zone by forcing the vapors through desirable avenues such as cones, perforated cones, nozzles, or tubes enables much greater operating flexibility in achieving the desired effect of mixing and thereby achieving greater levels of destruction of noxious vapors for environmental cleanup and industrial applications.
There also exists a need for a device and method to enable the destruction of noxious emissions and combustion products that are found in diesel and Otto cycle engine processes that have elevated emissions levels of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, low oxygen levels, and noxious unburned or partially burned hydrocarbons. Such a process would enable either manual or automatic processing of these vapors through either direct flame or secondary downstream flame destruction without impeding the continuous operation of the burner from flameouts that are likely to occur due to the characteristics of the influent noxious combustion products.
There also exists a need for a device and method for the destruction of noxious vapors that is simple, easy to maintain, and able to process varying flows as required for the continuous operation for destruction of varying compound concentrations.
There also exists a need for a device and method for the destruction of emissions contained in the exhaust ducting of an engine, smoke stack, chimney, etc., where the soot or noxious emissions pass directly or indirectly through the flame of a burner assembly mounted in the exhaust ducting, smoke stack, chimney or the like to reduce or destroy the emissions.